Boxcar at Hop City West End — Restaurant in Atlanta

TLDR; Exceptionally poor customer service by bar tender this past weekend.

I’ve been to Boxcar several times over the years. The location is nice & most of the time I have an enjoyable visit.

However, I’m disappointed to share my experience this past Sunday, 9/8 ~3:45pm. I unfortunately had the privilege of encountering one of the most unprofessional and disrespectful bar tenders I’ve ever come across. It’s clear to me that this young lady is not fit to be in the service industry.

So here’s my experience…

I show up to meet 4 friends of mine that were already seated outside by the time I arrived, with 2 additional folks increasing our party & table size.

Upon arrival I linger waiting for a server to greet us for about 5-10 min before requesting menus from the bartender. She was busy cleaning up the bar & assisting customers so I waited 10 more minutes before I noticed two empty tables that were waiting to be cleaned by a server.

My error, instead of bothering this already presumably busy bar tender with more questions about getting someone to move the tables together & clean, that I would pre-bus the tables so that our party can all sit together. Upon me moving the plates from the 2 tables and placing them on the bar, the server comes out asks me what I was doing. I explained to this server, that I’m combining these tables so that our party can all sit together. The server watched me continue to pre-bus the tables & left to do whatever she was doing (I assumed that she went to get a towel to wipe down the tables) Annoying but not the end of the world right?!

About another 5-10 min pass when I suddenly hear the bartender express to me her frustration at me dirtying up her bar & making her job more difficult.

For context, I overheard her speaking to another group about getting ready to end her shift & how excited she was sometime during my arrival when requesting menus.

After communicating to the Bar tender what I just shared with the server. She grows increasingly louder and more frustrated that I’ve given her more work to do & elected to shout out me in front of all on the patio garnering extra attention. Needless to say the situation was embarrassing and uncalled for. I hope that anyone else that dines here has a better experience than I did & that some type of disciplinary action takes place....

Place was nice and the staff was kind. Service was a little slow, the restaurant seemed empty for a Saturday but I'm not sure if that was just the time I went or what, so maybe they were short staffed. I didn't mind the service delay as I was there to talk with my friend. The pretzel bites appetizer was great and huge- even sharing it there was a lot. Recommend you get it for 3+ people, or if you want it as your meal. It's also vegetarian. My friend and I got sandwiches. Both had pickles skewered on top, I didn't remember seeing pickles on the description or I would have asked for it without them. My sandwich while good, was falling apart. I couldn't get one bite with everything. Meat read falling out upon arrival, sauce was on one side, so the other side was dry. The onion straws were very crunchy and good. There was a lot of arugula, and the cheese was nicely melted. I would suggest instead of a skewer that did nothing to hold my sandwich together, using a folded paper method and just putting pickles on the side of the plate. The paper would hold the sandwich together. My friend had the spicy sauce on his sandwich rocket out the hole in the bun (made from the skewer) and into his nose on the first bite. I got the cocktail that could be made with mezcal- which is my favorite spirit, and it was fantastic. So good. The restrooms are a little odd to get to, you have to walk down the line and out the back, which is fine, the problem being that the floor between the handoff window and the ice machine was slippery- like greasy slippery. I was fine but could see someone wiping out especially if they're a little drunk and trying to avoid the employees in that area. They need another rug there. As a side note you need to climb stairs to get to this place so if you have bad knees or are disabled you'll have to go to the downstairs bar. Their vegan and vegetarian options are limited, but at least...

I wanted to like it, but it was disappointing.

Perhaps my expectations were high because of the positive reviews I saw, but my wife and I were disappointed with our first experience at Boxcar. My wife's cheese steak was a bit dry and, I tasted bread more than anything else. (Yeah, I took a few bites. Wanna make somethin of it?) It wasn't terrible, bit it wasn't great either. I ordered the Yuzu Fried Chicken which also tasted dry or like it was sitting under a heat lamp for awhile. My sweet potato fries and peppers were probably my favorite part of the meal, and the sauce for the chicken was also good. The regular potato fries with the cheese steak also felt like they had been sitting out: dry and soggy. It feels like those two words shouldn't go together, but the fries didn't taste fresh. Certainly edible and not terrible, but again, not great.

I can eat most things, and I like to believe I have reasonable expectations when it comes to food. But the fact that our food wasn't cheap with our entrees around $15 apiece made the meal more disappointing.

The staff was kind enough, but our waitress was a bit busy because it was near closing time and she had to get checks for many other guests.

I'm willing to visit once more to try out the burgers people seem to like. Also, maybe the experience and food will be different if I come earlier or at a different time. The location is near my home, but if it wasn't, I don't think I'd take the time to drive out to try it again.

I should also note that my wife and I didn't drink. Perhaps our experience would be different if we came for beer...